Iran putters along at home against Qatar

Iran draws with Qatar at the expense of our nerves and hair(?)

What was our chance to put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the group (except South Korea, of course) turned out to be one torturous experience and one that taxed our patience. Everything was in place for a good home victory in front of a jam-packed Azadi stadium – something that hasn’t happened  in recent years. We had an internationally renowned coach, a decent squad of players (although injuries to a few like Ghazi, and Dejagah were of concern), an exhausted Qatar fresh from their drubbing by Korea mere three days prior while our team had a rest day. We also recognized the need to get the three points off this game as it would help our campaign tremendously. 

Well, now you can imagine our utter surprise when we first saw the starting line up chosen by Quieroz. Rahmati in goal with Mahini and Pouladi sandwiching Aghili and Hosseini in the back was expected and quite sensible. But it was beyond this line that raised our suspicions and ultimately ire as Quieroz chose to go with not one, but two defensive midfielders, Nekounam and Teymourian! So this was a departure from his earlier chosen formations, months ago, which was a more adventurous 4-3-3. In front of these two were the 33 year old  Karimi in the middle with Hajsafi and Heidari on the flanks. Given the latter two’s characteristics and abilities, it was natural to wonder where the goals would come from as these two aren’t exactly known for their goal scoring ability. And seeing Ansarifard’s name didn’t provide any respite or comfort in this regard either! Ansarifard’s poor performances against the very same Qatar, especially his misses in Qatar were still fresh in our minds. What was going on? What happened to all the claims of victory and leaving the rivals behind?

Our past experience with a single forward formation hasn’t been exactly flattering. Therefore leaving Ansarifard alone up there was quite worrying. Why such defensive posture and caution?  This was a home game with a 100,000 screaming fans against  the tired legs of a freshly beaten team. We were wondering about Quieroz’s game-plans when the game started and we started aggressively, putting pressure on the opponents. However, after the first 10-15 minutes of good pressure, we slowly settled into a pattern of Qatar staying back and defending in mass with only one or sometimes, two players hovering around the midline and with us basing most of our attacks from the flanks with decent pairing of Heidari-Mahini on the right and Hajsafi-Pouladi on the left. Crosses coming with rapidity, which was fine by me, but coming from all sorts of angles and positions, mostly landing in the middle of the box, which proved to be easy for the big Qatari keeper, Qasem Burhan, to collect.

The more we played, the more it became apparent that Quieroz has relied heavily on crosses from flanks. But to whom? The aging Karimi was always a few yards behind and Ansarifard showed he is still not ready to hustle and battle for balls with well-built defenders … be it on the ground or in the air! No wonder majority of the balls were collected quite comfortably by the keeper. But aside from crosses, the only other route exploited by us was long free throws from both side. In fact it was off one such long throw which created our best opportunity to score when Nekounam volleyed slightly off-balanced and hit the bar. Apart from this, there wasn’t much to write home about. Both Karimi and Ansarifard were more or less invisible and Quieroz almost resorted to substitutions (once again, similar to our last game) acknowledging his poor starting line up.  

In this half Rahmati also saw action as the sole Qatari corner saw a dangerous header almost creeping in had it not been for a fantastic reflex save by him. However, just as his save drew much cheer, his inability to exit even for balls that landed in his 6 yard line was exposed. A weakness that has been accentuated in recent months.

The second half, sadly, was no different from the first and the series of aimless (and quite hopeless) crosses was resumed. Didn’t Quieroz speak to the boys about such crosses? Some crosses came as soon as the player had gone past the half-line as if to say “I cross, therefore I am”. Crossing just for the sake of saying “I crossed”! Bringing in the likes of Khalatbari for Hajsafi and later on, Dejagah (fresh from injury) hardly made any palpable impact as we still didn’t have enough bodies in the box meeting all these crosses.

To make matters worse, Qatari players started their usual time wasting tactics, especially their keeper who really stretched the time with his goal kicks and suddenly falling to the ground out of the blue, reeling in pain as if injured by a mortar shell! But while it is easy to point at all the unsportsman-like behavior and time wasting tactics of the Persian Gulf opponents, we have to bear the most blame for the draw as ultimately it was our defensive strategies, bad line up and formation and late substitutions that did us in. Case in point, our third substitution was done on the 90 minute mark by bringing in yet another defensive midfielder, Zareh for the invisible Ansarifard! So we have no-one to blame but ourselves and our inability to correct our mistakes during the game or at the break. Even if the referee didn’t allot a fair amount of extra time for all the time wasting and grass-rolling done.

So we finish the group’s third match-day  with 4 points in second place with Qatar right behind us equaling our points but having played an extra game. No need to press the panic button yet and we still have 6 more games ahead of us. But we could have been in a far better position had we won the game, thus putting a safe distance between us and both Qatar and Uzbekistan. In my opinion, all those issues are secondary to a more pressing item: Quieroz’s strategy in the group as well as each individual game. So far we puttered in our two opening  games. I hate to see yet another World Cup campaign get smoked just because we took it too light and easy early on in the campaign, leaving for the final stress-ridden 3 rapid-fire game scenario come June 2013. We tasted that bitterness the last time and I’m sure we don’t like to experience it again.

Player ratings

RAHMATI – 7.5
He did have a couple of fantastic saves. But he also conceded a goal (that should have been given) and he showed he hasn’t remedied his weakness on crosses. Are his faltering days behind him?

MAHINI – 5.5
He was left stranded on the right side, no thanks to our prima-donna Jabbari refusing to do ANY DAMN THING. But he also did have a horrible back pass that almost led to a goal. and a few other mistakes that reduce his score. I expected more from him.

MONTAZERI - 6
He proved trusting him to pair up with Hosseini may not be a bad idea. I’d say lets maintain this duo in the central defense. A few mistakes here and there. But nothing out of ordinary given Iranian football and its low productivity in defense

HOSSEINI – 6.5
Same as Montazeri. I like this duo. Seems more intelligent than the Aghili-Hosseini one. He also had a direct influence on the Uzbek goal not being counted.

NOURI – 5.5
Seemed to be everywhere. A total work horse. But with Quieroz putting 2 lefties on the left side, they all covered each other well (unlike the right side where only Mahini was to handle all the attacks!) had a few hic-ups though

NEKOUNAM – 5
Almost all his score is for his shot (which if we had a forward in the line up, he’d have pounced on the spilled rebound ball and scored. But it seems Quieroz didn’t like teams with forwards until minute 75!!!). had a few good passes and acts. But was very invisible for long periods too

TEYMOURIAN – 7.5
He basically made up our midfield belt and compensated for Jabbari’s non-presence and Nekounam’s low visibility. His few bad passes, therefor, can be forgiven.

HAJSAFI – 6
He ran a lot and helped cement our left side. Not much in going forward though. I wonder why Pouladi didn’t play.

KARIMI – 5
Again, like Nekounam had a few instances of productivity, but was marked out of the game by tough marksmen. I'm afraid his age is slowly catching up to the maestro.

JABBARI – 1
This score of 1 is for the ONLY thing he did the entire game that proved useful for the team: walk out of the pitch to make way for Khalatbari. What a waste of spot!

EBRAHIMI – 3.5
Was totally out of place and was invisible. His exit was totally justified. He isn’t a natural striker and obviously didn’t have any impact on the team’s scant few attacks. I wasn’t impressed with him. But it doesn’t mean he should be dropped from the overall Team Melli roster.

HEIDARI – 6
His entry did bring a bit of stability to the right side as he, unlike prima-donna Jabbari, did help with the defense and ran more to cover more areas. That’s why we saw less mistakes by Mahini too. But nothing really special in the day almost the entire team played badly

KHALATBARI – 7.5
For his short stint he certainly did have a major impact on the team and the result. I really wonder why Quieroz didn’t bring him in the first half for Ebrahimi or Jabbari

ANSARIFARD – 7.5
Mainly for his fantastic and precise pass to Khalatbari. A short stint, but he took full advantage of it.


THE TEAM – 6
Mostly because we won and got the 3 points. But the quality of their performance was very very low.

Carlos Quieroz – 6
Until minute 75, and seeing his starting line up (without a single forward) and persistence with Jabbari and even Karimi, I’d have given him a score of ‘3’. The other 3 is for his last two subs who took care of the job. Our first game wasn’t very convincing and left a LOT to be desired. Be it with line up, strategy, team-work, … etc. I expect (and we ALL should expect) more from a coach with his resume.

Shaky but fortuitous first step for Team Melli

Quieroz falters in our first game, but the referee and FIFA's insane insistence on having no technology tarnishing the beautiful game saves his & our hide.

With the start of the Asian World Cup qualifiers’ final round, Iran had to travel to Uzbekistan to face one of their main rivals in qualification to Brazil. But Iran was fortunate to face a depleted Uzbek side that saw as many  as 5 to 6 players, including stars like Maxim Shatskikh, Tursenov and Djebarov, suspended by AFC for the game. This is the kind of opportunity that knocks one’s door only once in a life-time and we all expected Quieroz to exploit this opportunity to the hilt. Well weren’t we in for a gut-kicking surprise!

The first punch to the gut was when we saw the players walk out onto the pitch and saw quite a new set of arrangement and roster set to start the game. Traktorsazi’s Ebrahimi was the biggest surprise of the day as his debut against Albania hardly encouraged anyone to think of him as a contender for the coveted starting line up. The next and an even bigger surprise was to see no recognized striker among the 11 man squad. What was Quieroz thinking? And while we were raking our heads to find the answer to the above, Pouladi’s absence just put the icing on the cake.

The 11 man team was Rahmati taking on the keeping spot with Montazeri replacing Aghili as Hosseini’s partner in front with Mahini on the right and Pejman Nouri on the left. Nekounam and Teymourian were the expected defensive midfield duo. But then came the strange and I must confess, quite irrational set of 4 players in front of this duo; Jabbari, Karimi, Hajsafi and Ebrahimi. To say this was unexpected is a major understatement. Imagine having your main qualifying opponents on the ropes due to  major suspensions. One would think this is one of those times you must grasp lady luck and squeeze the most out of it by dealing a death blow to a direct qualifying rival, and that too away from home. Apparently Mr. Carlos Quieroz didn’t think so! It seemed he is content with a nil-nil drab draw!!

The first 10-15 minutes of the game also went as expected with the depleted Uzbek team coming in very cautiously and wary of getting hit early on. But once they saw how toothless and impotent our team was, they got more bold and adventurous and started to come out and attack us in droves. Not having a forward in our  team also helped them as their defenders freely stepped up and joined with their midfielders to wrestle the center of the pitch away. It took them no time to actually overwhelm our team and dominate the middle of the park.

Well, it wasn’t only the lack of a forward in our team that facilitated that, as we had quite a few players severely under-performing. Karimi, perhaps had his age to use as excuse for coming in second best in majority of the clashes. But Ebrahimi and definitely Jabbari had no such excuses as these two faltered and bungled passes, runs and any direct clashes with their opponents. It was almost physically painful to watch such a talented line up (on paper) get owned and overwhelmed so easily and quickly by literally Uzebkistan’s reserves.

On the left flank, having two lefties, Hajsafi and Nouri, sort of made this side less vulnerable to the Uzbek attacks. But with Jabbari and Ebrahimi strolling around the park aimlessly and quite uselessly, I must add, the amount of pressure exerted on our right flank became too much to bear on the right fullback, Mahini.  The lad almost always faced at least two attacking opponents which almost always got the better of him. So when Quieroz, late in the first half, subbed Ebrahimi out for Heidari, there was relief that help and corrections will be on the way. And Heidari did help slightly bolster the right flank as he relieved some of the pressure off Mahini. But with Jabbari still aimlessly wandering around the pitch, hardly connecting with any ball, each passing second became an agonizing one for all of us as we wondered what Quieroz was doing or thinking by keeping him on the pitch. Frankly nobody would have been surprised had he taken Jabbari out at minute 20 of the first half itself. But he remained on the pitch for a scandalous amount of time; about 72 minutes … resulting in pretty much zilch!

Nekounam’s biggest contribution in the game was his long distant shot that proved too much for the Uzbek keeper, Nesterov, to handle and he spilled it in a very dangerous fashion with the ball dropping  feet away from him. But since we did not have any forwards in the line up, ready to pounce on such balls, the keeper took a few steps and calmly collected the ball with Karimi and Hajsafi as mere onlookers from distance!

Jabbari’s first and only contribution to the match was when he walked out of the pitch to make way for Khalatbari. Now, with at least one recognized forward, our team took a semblance of shape and with him busying a couple of Uzbek defenders, the amount of pressure on our midfield was reduced. However, we must not forget to credit the ever hard-running Teymourian for his relentless and tireless running to compensate for the lack of input from almost everyone in the midfield, including the captain Nekounam.

But there was much drama awaiting us as the Uzbeks attacked in waves with great pressing tactics, they finally found their way into the goal off a set piece from Geynrikh, as first their shot was mishandled by Rahmati with the ball dropping mere feet away, in front of their forward, Akhmedov, who in his haste hit the post. But the rebound ball was finely met by another attacker and the ball seemed to have crossed the line while Hosseini standing more or less inside our goal-line trying to kick it away. The ball was kicked away and eventually it was kicked farther by the garbled defense with many Uzbek players raising their arms, claiming the goal. But Nishimura, The Japanese referee, didn’t think so as his linesman did not raise his flag. Perhaps his view was obstructed by an Uzbek player blocking the view of the ball on that side. But the TV replays showed the ball indeed had crossed the line and this was a major tragedy for the deserving Uzbek team that gallantly took the match by its scruff and despite their suspensions, applied massive pressure on us.

After that extra lucky break, Quieroz finally brought in another striker, Ansarifard, for Hajsafi and finally made the team look like a real team with two strikers. And that was when for one last time lady luck smiled upon our team. During a final push by the hosts, the never-tiring Teymourian got into the thick of things with two Uzbek midfielders and came up trumps. His pass to the runner, Ansarifard was well timed and placed. But with a glance at the other flank, the most exquisite of passes from the young Ansarifard saw the ball passed to the on-rushing Khalatbari who slotted the ball first time (quite a departure from traditional Iranian strikers’ habit of over-handling the balls) into goal with mere seconds to spare.

One can only feel sad for the unlucky Uzbek team that truly deserved at least a draw. But they will come back stronger and should not be underestimated in their return tie in Tehran.

This win was unbelievable and a tremendous stroke of luck. It also spared Quieroz and Team Melli much blushes as they severely under-performed against an almost reserves side. I’m afraid we used up our  entire depository of luck for the duration of the campaign, all in one game. Quieroz may “announce” to the press he was satisfied with the team and it was all “planned”. But we know better. He has no more room nor excuse to turn up for Team Melli’s following games. Yes, he has a great resume’ filled with great teams and names. But that hardly matters when he gets the starting line up wrong and takes scandalously large amount of time to remedy his wrong picks. We face Qatar in our next game at home and that should be his best chance to put all the doubts to rest and calm all the nerves.

Highlights of the game, courtesy of PFDC-TV :  click here

A wake up call for Quieroz or a warning sign for Iran?

Iran got through the preliminary round of World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014 by brushing Maldives aside with a home 4-0 and an 1-0 away win. I would have been a fool to expect a repeat of 17-0 or even the 9-0 games of a decade ago as Maldives has shown great improvement from those days. Testament to this is their 2008 championship trophy of South Asian region and the runner-up prize in 2010 in the same tournament.

(Khalatbari scores the only goal of the game)

But the source of my disappointment was the quality shown by Team Melli. Quieroz came to Iran on the strength and promise of rejuvenating and bringing a new age for our football. So far, after the Austria camp, a friendly against Madagascar and two games against the Asian minnows, Maldives, I am yet to see any rejuvenation or even rise in quality of the team's performance.

In my opinion, he needs more time to implement his ideas and theories. But that does not distract me from noticing how he picked the roster for these games and more importantly, how forgiving he was towards some very doubtful and weak performances by some of the players. The only ray of light on this issue is perhaps with the start of the league and passage of a couple of months he will have a better idea which players are useful and what they would be capable of, therefore paving the way for more sensible rosters and line ups. That's why I will not go over each and every pick when by jove, there are some rather amusing and questionable picks in the line up. However, I will attend to one particular player in a very key position.

Ali Karimi -
Are we going to see an aging Ali Karimi in the World Cup squad in 2013? He would be 34-35 by then. Given Persepolis' league games, Asian Champions league, Hazfi games and the occasional Team Melli games, I fear this schedule would take its toll on far younger players, let alone on the aging Karimi.

Wouldnt it have been a better idea to start grooming other youngsters for this position from early on and initiating them against weaker opponents so by 2013 and the final stage of World Cup qualifiers against Asia's top teams, we would have a young, energetic and in form playmaker who fits well into the squad?

Thankfully, we do have quite a handful or promising players who can slip into this position very comfortably and deliver the goods in aplomb. Players such as Ghasem Hadadifar, the Zob Ahan maestro, who, at the moment stands out from the rest in his amazing work rate, vision, passing ability and leadership. Iman Mobali is another candidate for the post. And there are others such as Ahmad Jamshidian (Sepahan), Mojtaba Jabbari (Esteghlal) - if he stays healthy and injury free, Mohamad Nouri (Persepolis), even the young Bakhtiar Rahmani (Foolad).

I hope Quieroz will have a second look at his squad picks and line ups and does the much needed fine tuning as soon as possible.

Zob Ahan dodges the bullet?

Looks like after much tumult and speculations, Mansour Ebrahimzadeh has decided to stay put in Zob Ahan and finish his assault on the Asian Champions League. Along with this news, it is reported that most of the roster of the club have decided to extend their contracts with the club, which should keep the structure of the team more or less intact. This is a welcome news which comes at a time that Zob Ahan sees two of its key players, Khalatbari and Talebi leave the club.

I believe with a few key purchases in the transfer season, the club can fill the vacant slots well and continue their impressive campaign in Asia, maintaining the high quality we have come to expect from them in recent years.


Meanwhile, the one man they will find hard to replace is Ebrahimzadeh's talented young assistant, Majid Saleh, who will be seen head coaching another IPL club, Saipa. I believe Mr. Saleh belongs to the few promising young up and coming coaches, the likes of which, unfortunately, we dont have many!

Zob Ahan in total disarray

First it was the news of departure of Khalatbari to a Qatari club, Al-Gharafa, which was bad enough for both Zob Ahan’s ambitions to do one better than last year’s runner-up rank, but to Khalatbari’s own footballing career as hardly any player improves – or even manages to maintain form – once they make the move to the Persian Gulf leagues, and now, there is even more devastating rumors of Ghasem Hadadifard’s move to Qatar’s league!!

The midfield maestro displayed such levels of skills, vision and performance that forced the newly appointed national team coach Queiroz to immediately call him up. But it doesn’t stop with Hadadifard as now, there is talk of Sepahan’s lynch-pin in defense, Hadi Aghili joining yet another Qatari club! Is Qatar trying to emulate what UAE’s league did to our stars?

But a move to the Persian Gulf leagues is nearly a kiss of death as it has been for many other Iranian stars who have been lured away with the promise of money, but in the bargain, wasted years of productivity. Is this a similar fate facing these great players? It would be an utter shame to see a repeat of what happened to the likes of Iman Mobaali, Javad Kazemian and … etc. It has taken great effort on the part of Oladi, Mobaali and Kazemian to claw back to an acceptable level of performance after joining the Iranian clubs. I despair to think the same thing happen to Khalatbari, Hadadifard and Aghili.

But the most depressing aspect of these transfers is what happens to Zob Ahan and their Asian aspirations. It seems the whole club is in such devastating turmoil that it is finding hard to retain any of its key players. Aside from the above mentioned players, another defensive strong-man, Farshid Talebi may be moving to Saipa and with Gordan’s rumors I fear by the time Zob Ahan steps onto the quarterfinals pitch, we shall be seeing a very different team lacking one of its main keys to its recent years’ success; consistency and stability in its roster. Indeed it would be a very sad day to see Zob Ahan’s promising campaign come to a halt due to some ridiculously horrendous management.

At the same time one cannot stay quiet on AFC’s bizarre scheduling of the Asian champions league since it heavily favors those of the East Asian leagues and clashes with the West Asian leagues’ time-tables. Little wonder in recent editions, east Asian teams have been more successful as they come into the tournament fresh and with a stable roster till the end of the games, while the West Asian leagues are going through the second halves of their seasons and with the end of the season team transfers and roster changes, have to continue the tournament often with new teams.
But don’t get me started on the AFC and its peculiar management of football in Asia!

Zob Ahan, a class above Asia

Zob Ahan’s game had everything a Hollywood blockbuster needs; Drama, fast paced action, flair & trickery, tears and even one deadly missile. But what stands out the most in this game for me is how truly elegant and classy they performed as a team. Today Zob Ahan could have been a team playing in a top European league vying for honors.

I don’t know if I should start with their fluid passing, positional plays, constant movement that confounded the Saudi team, their intelligence or the sheer amount of flair and skills displayed by many of its players, with Khalatbari at the top of the heap.

Khalatbari was an unstoppable dynamo who ran riot throughout the match and Al-Nassr simply did not have a response to his runs, dribbles, passes. Some friends in PFDC compared him with a certain Lionel Messi. Today, I think this comparison was not beyond imagination. Yes, he was THAT GOOD. Oh, and by the way, he had 2 magnificent assists that resulted in a 2-0 scoreline with hardly 5 minutes into the game.

The first goal saw him weave through a crowd of Saudi defenders as if they were sticks rooted in the ground, supplying Ghazi with a deft pass. And Ghazi picked up where Khalatbari dropped off and he, in turn, scrambled the defenders even more and slotted the goal by the hapless goal keeper.

Khalatbari, then, supplied the corner through which Igor Castro scored an easy header and the first of his brace. From this moment on, Zob Ahan was in control of match and except a few minutes in the middle of the second half, they never relinquished this control till the final whistle.

But the drama was just starting in a match that saw the Al Nassr coach forced to make substitutions in 32nd minute and then by 45th minute, desperately trying to wrestle some control of the ball and make a headway. However it was not so as the Iranian midfield maestro, Hadadifard, produced one of his signature through passes that fed Castro who shot past the keeper to score his second and put Zob Ahan 3-0.

This had a feeling of a rout from the beginning of the game and things were moving according to the script. So much that even the opponent’s lone goal didn’t really faze the Isfahani team and they stuck to their coach, Ebrahimzadeh’s plans which saw the best goal of the Asian Champions League as their fourth. A long range cruise missile by Shahin Kheiri, zeroing in on the crumbling Saudi goal keeper which finally broke the opponents’ resistance … not to mention make the keeper weep!
In a game that saw Zob Ahan score 4 goals and fail to score at least another 4-5 goals, we also must give credit to a defender, Ahmadi, who saved at least 3 one-on-ones with impeccably timed tackles.



All in all, this was a magnificent display of prowess by a team that has made intelligent and team oriented football its trade mark and sits on top of the Asian clubs’ ranking in the world (fifa). While Sepahan’s game yesterday provided great satisfaction for the Iranian fans, Zob’s game was an absolute joy to watch. Thank you Mr.’s Ebrahimzadeh & Saleh for preparing a team that oozes class and intelligence. Thank you very much.